Some lessons from this second visit to Slappy Cakes:
1. It is crowded in the morning on weekends. However, if you don't want to make pancakes at the griddle, you can easily get a seat. I also spoke with the bar host and the waiter, and both confirmed that it gets real quiet after 2 and they actually have a happy hour from 2-4. So, if you want to really sleep in and get some hangover food (or re-vitalize your tipsyness), this might be an option.
2. The benedict dishes: we tried the veggie and the pork belly confit. The veggie one was actually better- the pork belly portion was pretty small- there was much more tasteless carrot ribbon and of the four pieces of belly one was pretty fatty. I was going to write a comment card on it- and found someone had already filled it in! She had the same comments about the pork belly and the carrots as I did. I also found the english muffin overcooked (had to really use some knife work to cut pieces), and was not able to detect any extra flavor from using bacon fat in the hollandaise. The hollandaise at Mother's is better. The veggie version of a benedict, with seared tofu, romesca, polenta, and seasonal root veggies had more flavor then the confit of pork belly, pickled carrot ribbons and bacon fat hollandaise, which is a sad statement. The side of potatoes in both dishes was a good portion but tasteless until you added one of the hot sauces on the table.
3. It is harder to make shapes with pancakes then you might think without a cookie cutter. I also wonder if we can sneak in our own extra ingredients to add to the pancakes… they hardly check back on the table, and what would they say if I had a lil ziploc of
Also, the best drink by far is the Slappy Bloody Mary. I don't think I would return for breakfast- but I might try their lunch.
Pork Belly Benedict:
Veggie Benedict:
Pancakes:
It was disappointing that the pork belly benedict wasn't up to snuff. Although the pancakes are fun, they just aren't delicious enough to want time and time again- and especially with that kind of wait. The additional dishes need to be up to snuff to help be able to justify that besides the fun of making pancakes, you can also get a pretty tasty breakfast that you couldn't make at home or say, get at any generic diner. After all, if you wanted an electric griddle and all this at home, it might cost you the same as two meals here and you can add additional things at the same time (Slappy only allows pancakes). I'm personally a picturing mini-slider party… I can also imagine everyone hand-making potstickers or pierogi would be fun. I never was good at successfully closing them- the two times I made dumplings at chinese parties mine were always the one that leaked out meat and became just dough balls :X
Edit 2011: It looks like Slappy Cakes has upped the number of interesting ingredients a customer can order to put in their pancakes now, allowing for a much more personalized experience per person that might be harder to create at home unless you invest in a big buffet of both savory and sweet ingredients. They also are offering more pancake batter flavors that vary seasonally. However, they've also decided to focus mainly on breakfast/brunch now, so no more happy hour or afternoon pancakes past 3pm. Check out this video demo!
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